Personal Communication
by celticmusebooks
Summary: Kirk is nonplussed when he receives a suggestive pm from his First Officer during a staff meeting. I own nothing of the Star Trek Universe. Thanks to my rockstar beta Djinn 1!


"So good of you to join us, Mister Spock," Kirk said, struggling to maintain his best poker face.

Spock responded, of course, with the expected raised eyebrow. He made a perfunctory survey of the staff gathered around the conference table before taking the empty chair across from Kirk.

"I regret any inconvenience caused by my tardiness," Spock said, though his tone skewed more toward pique than contrition. "It was, however, quite unavoidable."

"Unavoidable, Mister Spock?" Despite his best efforts, Kirk was unable to suppress a mischievous grin at the compulsively punctual First Officer's discomfort. He enjoyed engaging in their old game of good natured banter, with the staid Vulcan as de-facto straight man. He had missed this, the small moments of camaraderie with his crew, with his friends.

"Quite, sir," Spock responded, a trace of a smile playing briefly across his face. It was obvious that Spock was enjoying this revival of their game as well. "There were unforeseen problems with gathering the necessary specimens, resulting in a significant delay in my team's return to the ship."

"Unforeseen, Spock?" McCoy asked, as if on cue, a self satisfied grin softening his wizened features.

"I am a scientist, doctor, not a psychic." Spock leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, looking vaguely smug, as if capturing an opponent's queen.

"Gentlemen," Kirk said, attempting to stifle another laugh, "perhaps we'd better get back to the meeting."

"I believe that would be the logical course of action, Captain."

"Mister Scott, you were about to report on the anomalies with the warp coils?"

"Aye sir," he said.

Kirk gazed fondly at the faces of the crewmembers gathered around the table, basking in the warm glow of something he thought had been lost forever. His universe was back in order. He had his ship back; he had his crew. He was home.

Of course, a lot had changed in the past two and a half years. Learning the ins and outs of the refitted Enterprise had been more of a challenge than he'd initially anticipated. In the past four weeks he'd spent nearly every waking moment either on the bridge or holed up in his quarters poring over technical manuals and schematics.

There had been a number of other changes as well. Chekov was a Lieutenant now, Uhura was a Lieutenant Commander and Sulu was now a full commander. He smiled as Janice Rand, began her report. His nubile yeoman had blossomed into a mature, confident, by-the-book, Starfleet Officer. Looking around the table, he felt a warm swell of almost paternalistic pride.

On the other hand, it appeared, some things hadn't changed. He studied the woman seated immediately to his right. He'd always had a special fondness for Christine Chapel. She was a bright, beautiful, engaging woman. If he ever admitted to having a "type," he would say she was it. Truth be told, he had seriously considered the idea of looking her up while they'd both been stationed in San Francisco. But she was in love with his best friend and even if Spock was too blind to see what he was missing, Kirk still considered her off limits.

She had returned to the Enterprise with a newly conferred medical degree and an aura of self confidence that had been missing in their first tour together. But he had seen that brief flash of longing in her eyes as she stole a furtive glance at Spock. He had hoped that Spock's newfound emotional openness in the wake of his experience with V'ger might somehow extend itself to Chapel, but that didn't appear to be the case.

The object of her poorly concealed desire was seated across the conference table, oblivious to her scrutiny, apparently engrossed in composing something on his PDCP. That was yet another of the myriad changes in the ship, the addition of the Personal Digital Communications Padd.

He had initially balked at the idea of his ship being the beta test for the tiny communications devices. Although he understood the rationale for separating personal communication from the ship's general communications systems, the idea of yet another device to be managed was annoying. The crew, on the other hand, had taken to the small, text based communicators like ducks to water. It was impossible to go anywhere on the ship and not see crewmembers hunched over the small devices. He hadn't seen such a successful invasion of a starship since the infestation of tribbles during the last five-year mission.

He glanced across the table to see Spock, once again, typing into the PDCP. Apparently Spock's social life was better than his own. Suddenly Kirk's small padd lit up, and he was flustered for a moment before he remembered where to touch the screen to display the message.

_ SPOCK: How much longer are you going to keep putting me off? I do not understand your intransigence in this matter. I have tried to be patient, but this situation between us must be addressed._

Kirk stared at the words on the small screen puzzling them out as if they were written in some alien language. It was true that he'd rejected Spock's attempts to reinstitute their regular chess matches, but he'd been careful to explain to him that he had his hands full bringing himself up to speed on the new ship. He hadn't realized that it had bothered Spock so much. But of course, in the month since the mind meld with V'ger, Spock had been experiencing uncharacteristic mood swings, as he struggled to bring his human and Vulcan natures into some sort of alignment.

Kirk tapped the screen twice and typed: _What situation do we need to address?_ then hit send.

Uhura was giving her report now; somehow he'd missed the end of Rand's report. The message light on the PDPC flashed and he tapped the screen to read the message.

_ Spock: Please do not feign coyness on this issue. I want you, and I know that you want me. Yet despite this, you have doggedly sidestepped every overture I have made toward you. It is not logical._

What the hell, Spock? Kirk stared down at the screen for a moment, fighting a growing sense of panic. He desperately attempted to reconfigure the words into some context that made sense, and felt a cold knot tightening in the pit of his stomach. He looked across the table to see Spock with his eyes fixed on Chekov as he delivered his report on tactical weapons.

Kirk tapped the screen and typed: _Have you lost your mind?_ before reconsidering and hitting the backspace key. He suddenly recalled Spock's words to him, three days ago. "I wish to speak to you on a matter of some importance, when I return, Jim."Hell, he'd assumed it was some problem with the antimatter containment fields or the crappy Vulcan food the redesigned replicators had been spitting out.

He tried to run through every interaction he'd had with Spock in the past four weeks, looking for anything he'd said or done that would have given him the idea that he was interested in any sort of sexual relationship between the two of them. Calm down. He needed to grab the bull by the horns and find out what the hell was going on.

Kirk took a deep breath and typed: _I'm not being coy. I just don't know what would make you think I want you?_

A few seconds later the message light flashed.

_Spock: I felt it when you touched me in sickbay, after the meld with V'ger. You have never been skillful in shielding your emotions_. _I have thought of little else since that moment, but the feel of you touching me. Surak teaches us, that the reward of abstinence is its end. I believe that it is time we reaped our reward._

Kirk pinched his forearm hard, hoping against hope to awaken from this nightmare. Praying to every god of every universe, he searched to find the words that would extract him from this situation without destroying a friendship that meant the world to him. He typed slowly: _Spock, I love you like a brother, nothing could ever change that. But I could never be in love with you. I'm sorry._

He stole a quick glance across the table. Spock's jaw was tightly clenched as he typed. A few moments later the message light flashed.

_Spock: Understood. I shall not trouble you again_.

Kirk felt physically ill. The room seemed suddenly too small, too hot. He reached for the PDCP. He had to find the words to make Spock understand that he still valued their friendship, but before he could think of what to say the message light flashed and he tapped the screen to read the message.

_McCoy: Stop undressing that damn Vulcan with your eyes and find a way to get __me out of this blasted meeting._

Kirk stared at the message for a few moments before he typed his reply. _"I'm not undressing anyone with my eyes, have you been drinking?"_

_McCoy: Drinking? If only. Everyone on the ship knows you'd hop in bed with him if he so much as looked in your direction_.

Kirk felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Chapel leaning toward him. He was suddenly aware that everyone around the table was staring at him and realized that they were waiting for an answer to a question that he unfortunately hadn't heard.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "Important comm from Fleet-now what were you saying, Mister Scott?"

"I believe that Commander Sulu was giving us a report on the navigational systems, Captain," Spock said, regarding him with a cool stare and sharply raised eyebrow.

"Sulu, yes…I'm sorry, your question?"

"Did you want me to file the initial results, or would you rather we wait for the second round of tests?"

"Let's hold off until we get the second-round data back."

The message light flashed again; against his better judgment, Kirk tapped the screen to read the message.

_McCoy: Comm from Fleet my ass! He and that blasted Vulcan are probably setting up a chess game for later tonight. If ol Jimbo ever brings this damn meeting to a close, how about we grab us a couple of steaks in the Executive Mess and you can tell me all about med school?_

Kirk stared at the screen for a moment then puzzlement slowing gave way to relieved laughter.

"Doctor Chapel, it appears we've somehow switched PDPCs." He slid the device across the table, exchanging it for his own. He laughed even harder as he read the previous message, still displayed on the screen.

_Spock: "I appreciate your invitation, however I have plans for this evening of a romantic nature. Perhaps another time?"_

Kirk leaned close to Chapel and said softly, "I think you might want to scroll back though the last few messages before you make any plans for this evening."

Chapel frowned, but hesitantly complied. Her eyes widened and she looked up at Kirk, then across the table at Spock, who, from the look on his face, was just starting to understand the full implication of the switched padds.

"It's been a long week. What say we all log our reports to the computer and enjoy the rest of the evening? Bones, I think Doctor Chapel may be otherwise engaged this evening, however I would love to join you for a steak dinner."

From the mortified look on McCoy's face, the implication of the switched padds was not lost on him either.

"'Ol' Jimbo?'" Kirk asked, shaking the PDPC at McCoy. "And people," Kirk said loudly enough for everyone in the conference room to hear. "I don't ever want to see one of these in a staff meeting again. Dismissed."


End file.
